IF a flimsy notion is repeated often enough, it becomes repeated as fact. Thus the notion that NBA games are now so low-scoring – before and after the lockout – has been factualized as a matter of teams playing superior defense. Nonsense!

Good defense used to ignite fast breaks and make for basketball that was pleasing to the senses. Remember the Pat Riley Lakers? How ’bout the Red Auerbach Celtics?

Today, defensive rebounds are obligatorily handed to point guards and the tedious process is renewed in the other direction. This is done at the behest of minimalist coaches, including Riley.

As Bill Walton said on NBC a few seasons back, today’s centers, after a defensive rebound, rarely look upcourt. Modern NBA centers, he said, don’t even consider making an outlet pass. Heck, Bill, today there’s no one in position to catch one. Chuck Dolan vs. George Steinbrenner. New York’s greatest sports battle – and one that will last for months, perhaps years – allows no rooting interest.

Whatever they cost each other will be marked up, then charged to you. *

Given the on-going IOC/USOC scandals, the issue shouldn’t be who, as in who the NBA chooses for the U.S. Olympic team. It should be why, as in why does the NBA run the U.S. Olympic team?

The issue should be why did the IOC and USOC allow USA Basketball, the governing body of our Olympic team, to sell its marketing rights to NBA Properties? And why is USA Basketball’s committees dominated by NBA executives?

That Olympic authorities have consistently sold their authority, that conflicted interests have long dominated the business of the Olympics, is why the Olympics today are mired in disrepute.